(ANTIWAR.COM) — Late last week, Qatar received a list of 13 demands from Saudi Arabia and the other Arab nations involved in blockading them, and has been warned by the Saudi kingdom that they have just 10 days to unconditionally accept all of them, or face unspecified further action.
(ANTIWAR.COM) — Saudi Arabia and its allies have issued a list of 13 demands to be imposed on the Qatar government in return for the lifting of their blockade against the tiny Gulf state. The demands appear to start with those demands from a previous Saudi ultimatum, and expand on them in several major ways.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman attends a special cabinet meeting to mark Jerusalem Day in Ein Lavan, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, June 2, 2016.
Israeli officials have been eagerly backing regional hostility toward Qatar, and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has doubled down on that, accusing the Qatar-funded al-Jazeera network, the most popular news media outlet in the Middle East, of being “Nazi-, Soviet-style propaganda.”
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani attends a Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Doha, Qatar. (AP/Osama Faisal)
Qatar’s neighbors have implemented a threat they made three years ago, and severed their ties with, and physically cut off, the small Gulf state, prompting a diplomatic crisis in the important resource-rich region.
Qatar Emir Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani waits for the arrival of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of their meeting, at Diwan Palace in Doha, Qatar. (Brendan Smialowski/AP)
Tensions between the Gulf Arab states continues to rise today, with Saudi Arabia leading a new round of threats against Qatar, with Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry insisting that “all options” remain open for handling Qatar, amid rumors of a potential invasion.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani attends a Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Doha, Qatar. (AP/Osama Faisal)
It’s not every day that two states with similar societies and international alignments break into an open cold war, but this is what is happening between Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Here’s what you need to know.
Yousef Al Otaiba, the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States of America, left, and Susan Rice, National Security Adviser, talk in the State Dining Room of the White House, July 25, 2013. (AP/Carolyn Kaster)
Hackers have released email exchanges between the Emirati ambassador to the US and top foreign policy figures that include details of a forthcoming meeting between UAE officials and a pro-Israel think tank, reports said on Saturday.
ISIS fighters parade fown the main stretch of Raqqa, Syria.
[Editor’s note: The claims made in this article are sourced to Russian Government-funded media and should taken with caution. Al-Jazeera has disputed these claims.]
A Qatari employee of Al Jazeera Arabic language TV news channel walks past the logo of Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar. (AP/Kamran Jebreili)
